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Saturday, January 26, 2013

YA for Pre-K

a self-portrait drawn by my sister, Rose

YA book covers can be so misleading, especially if you are a
four-year-old, a truth that I recognized after reading multiple blog posts and
articles that resulted from authors asking their children to judge books by
their covers. I recently decided to put this to the test with the help of my
own little sister, who not only willingly, but quite enthusiastically, told me
what she thought various YA novels are about. I am so happy to welcome the most
adorable preschooler in the world onto my blog, and I hope you enjoy meeting my
sister, who will be going by her middle name, Rose, for privacy reasons.

So, I will let Rose take over now with the wish that you
will laugh at her insightful interpretations as much as I did.

According to her guidance counselor, fifteen-year-old Payton
Gritas needs a focus object-an item to concentrate her emotions on. It's
supposed to be something inanimate, but Payton decides to use the thing she
stares at during class: Sean Griswold's head. They've been linked since third
grade (Griswold-Gritas-it's an alphabetical order thing), but she's never
really known him.

The focus object is intended to help Payton deal with her
father's newly diagnosed multiple sclerosis. And it's working. With the help of
her boy-crazy best friend Jac, Payton starts stalking-er, focusing on-Sean
Griswold . . . all of him! He's cute, he shares her Seinfeld obsession (nobody
else gets it!) and he may have a secret or two of his own.

In this sweet story of first love, Lindsey Leavitt
seamlessly balances heartfelt family moments, spot-on sarcastic humor, and a budding
young romance.

What the Four-Year-Old Says it's About:

There's a little land and it's called Funny Draw Land. And
there was a little boy who always liked to look at the drawings, and he never
went home. He just looked at the drawings, like a heart or a pumpkin or
anything!

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having
angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and
faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but
it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring
out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger
lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out
to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place
and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who
appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer
understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd
have to make between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the
fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the
struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

What the Four-Year-Old Says it's About:

It's about a really big land and it's all purplish and a
really nice girl comes walking in and then she goes walking home and that's the
end.

My little sister seems to be a fantasy person; she loves her
different "lands" that contrast with our own.

Becca has always longed to break free from her small, backwater
hometown. But the discovery of an unidentified dead girl on the side of a dirt
road sends the town--and Becca--into a tailspin. Unable to make sense of the
violence of the outside world creeping into her backyard, Becca finds herself
retreating inward, paralyzed from moving forward for the first time in her
life.

Short chapters detailing the last days of Amelia Anne
Richardson's life are intercut with Becca's own summer as the parallel stories
of two young women struggling with self-identity and relationships on the edge
twist the reader closer and closer to the truth about Amelia's death

What the Four-Year-Old Says it's About:

That's a harder one. Let me lie down and think.

[pauses]

Yes. I got the start of it. First there's a really dark and
black day, and there was always all kinds of different roses that lived there.
And they never were dead. They never went anywhere. They were called stay
roses. And they lived in the middle of a very funny thing: it's called chicken
legs. And they were always wrapped around it. If they didn't wrap around it,
then they would die.

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from
popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with
"freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth
of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back
to normal. But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the
black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and
surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have
imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both
keep, being together is pretty much impossible.

Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away.
And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what
she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

What the Four-Year-Old Says it's About:

There was a girl and a boy that loved to kiss each other.
Another boy and girl came and they loved to hug each other and they hugged,
hugged, hugged. Then we have another boy and girl who came walking by who loved
to hug and kiss. They hugged and kissed so much that they loved each other. And
then a girl and boy went walking by that didn't love to hug or kiss.

Question: What do you get when you take . . . 1 overachieving
girl + 1 insanely cute guy + 1 massive fine + 1 scheme involving a little
dishonesty and a whole lot of cash?

I've always been the good girl--working seriously long hours
at my family's restaurant and getting straight As. And Camden King was always
just that hot, popular guy I'd pass in the halls, whose ego was probably much
bigger than his brain. I didn't think there'd "ever" be a reason for
us to actually, like, interact.

Then again, I never thought I'd mess up so badly that my
family might lose our entire restaurant if I didn't come up with a ton of
money, and fast. So that's where Camden comes in--he and his evil/genius plan
to do kids' homework for cash.

I know cheating's wrong, but it's better than being
"dead," right? Which is what I'd be if my parents knew about what
happened. I never expected things to spin so far out of control. Or that I'd be
such a sucker for Camden's lopsided grin. Or that falling apart could be the
best thing that ever happened to me.

Answer: The time of my life.

What the Four-Year-Old Says it's About:

There was a girl who had a green shirt and she loved to sing
really loud. There was another boy who was like her, but he only had one eye.
The both singed and danced in a show for other people.

I had just shown her a different cover featuring a girl
whose hair was covering one of her eyes, so I assume that is why she thought to
give the boy that particular characteristic.

Rose is signing off for now, but she had a blast helping me
with this post. Would you like to see her again? This is one of her new favorite activities, and she would be happy to make a
repeat appearance.

If you like this, you can visit Sara at Forever 17 Books, a
blogger who was one of my inspirations for this post and who runs her own
feature that also includes cover art drawn by her son. And for those of you who
have little people in your life and have done a post like this: leave links! I
would love to read their words of wisdom.